The landowners, small businesses, and restoration organizations who steward rural America's working landscapes face a persistent financing gap. Working capital is scarce. Lending products are poorly suited to the timelines and risks of land-based work. And government conservation programs, while valuable, are reimbursement-based, effectively excluding many families who could benefit. The Rural Resilience Fund (RRF) is New Leaf’s answer to that problem.

The US can't hit its reforestation goals without nurseries — and nursery infrastructure is contracting right as demand surges. The Forest Inputs Resilience Fund is dedicated debt capital for the businesses upstream of every reforestation project in the country.

The US is short roughly a billion tree seedlings a year, and the supply chain is contracting just as demand surges. We visited operators across 20 states to map every nursery that matters — and designed the financing facility we think can change the trajectory.